


on indie rock and rude guitarists

by hcjime



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Music, Battle of the Bands, M/M, Rule the Court Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 13:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19133074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hcjime/pseuds/hcjime
Summary: Watari’s eyes dart between them. “We’re probably gonna be seeing each other a lot after this,” he says, careful. “Because of - you know, our drummers seem to be getting on really well, and obviously Iwaizumi-san and Oikawa-san, so it’s probably best that you two at least pretend to like each other. You know, for publicity.”“You know I’ve never given a damn about publicity,” Kyoutani snaps.“Oh, edgy,” Shigeru mocks. Oikawa elbows him, still deep in conversation with Iwaizumi, and Shigeru tries his hardest not to wince. Kyoutani snorts anyway. (His laugh is cute, too; this is absolutelyridiculous.)[or : in which kyoutani and yahaba are members of rival bands, and yahaba's never been soenamoredangered with one person before]





	on indie rock and rude guitarists

Shigeru likes to consider himself a fairly calm person. It’s hard to have a mature and professional image when he’s, one: in a bubblegum pop band and two: in said bubblegum pop band with both Oikawa Tooru and Hanamaki Takahiro, infamous for flirting and messing with anyone outside the band respectively, but he does his best. For the most part, he stays out of the limelight, letting Oikawa and Hanamaki soak up the attention while he and Kunimi handle scandals behind the scenes.

Even Shigeru, though, has his limits, and he reaches them at a stupid  _ Battle of the Bands _ event, of all places.

“Yahaba-kun,” Oikawa calls, the cheer in his voice strained as he tugs Shigeru back with one hand. “Let’s be professional to our competitors, okay? Sportsmanship is a virtue.”

“Did you hear what he  _ said _ ?” Shigeru spits. Bleached Hair Boy whose name he doesn’t know glares at him, all too close to his face.

“I meant it,” Bleach snarls in reply. “All of you assholes are just hacks who get by on being pretty.”

“Oh, and I’m sure whatever screamo band you belong to has groundbreaking music-”

“We’re indie rock, actually,” a new guy says, yanking Bleached Hair Boy backwards to stand beside him. He growls at Bleach, “Kyoutani, we fucking talked about this.”

“He was asking for it,” Kyoutani replies, still glaring but mildly subdued. The other man (their frontman, maybe? Shigeru feels like he recognizes him from somewhere, now that he’s thinking about it) shoots both of them an apologetic grin. Oikawa looks like he’s going to faint.

“Sorry,” he says. “I’m Iwaizumi Hajime. We’re in Riot; I think we’re supposed to be the best - after you, maybe.”

“Oh,” Oikawa says, breathless. “Uh, Oikawa Tooru, from SJ51. Nice to meet you.” Shigeru rolls his eyes.

“Guys,” Hanamaki says, pinwheeling forward with a chicken drumstick in one hand and an actual drumstick in the other, “did you hear we’re going against Riot - you know, the band with that frontman Oikawa said was-”

“Makki,” Oikawa crows, pulling Hanamaki toward him and tousling his hair. “This is Iwaizumi and - Kyoutani?” Kyoutani snaps his eyes at Hanamaki for half a second before glaring at the floor again. Iwaizumi elbows him in the gut hard enough that he doubles over. “We should spend some time together before the actual competition, right? Get to know each other as friends before rivals.”

“It’s  _ one  _ contest; we’re hardly rivals-” Hanamaki begins, but Oikawa kicks his shin.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” he says. “After all, Yahaba-kun and Kyou-chan are already fighting, aren’t they?”

“ _ Kyou-chan? _ ” Kyoutani repeats, bristling. Shigeru laughs, disguising it as a cough.  Kyoutani’s brows furrow and he clenches his jaw, hands drawing into fists, but Shigeru just grins at him.

Approximately three minutes later, they’re all sitting in a cramped booth in the back of the bar that’s hosting the battle. Shigeru’s squished against the wall across from Kyoutani, who looks like he’d rather eat his hand than be here right now. 

“Hi,” the guy next to Kyoutani says, sticking out his hand for Shigeru to shake. “I’m Watari. Sorry about him.”

“Don’t apologize for me,” Kyoutani snaps, but he’s wearing something like a smile. (He has dimples. They’re cute. It’s making it very hard for Shigeru to hate him.)

The next half hour is - peaceful, almost. Kunimi’s relentlessly making fun of Riot’s poor keyboardist (Kindaichi, Shigeru remembers - his outfit is a dressed-down button-up and jeans, a contrast to the rest of his band), and Hanamaki and Matsukawa seem to have bonded over teasing Oikawa and Iwaizumi. That just leaves -

“I’m not gonna get along with you just because everyone wants me to,” Kyoutani grumbles as he bites into a celery stick.

“I never said you had to,” Shigeru replies. 

Watari’s eyes dart between them. “We’re probably gonna be seeing each other a lot after this,” he says, careful. “Because of - you know, our drummers seem to be getting on really well, and obviously Iwaizumi-san and Oikawa-san, so it’s probably best that you two at least pretend to like each other. You know, for publicity.”

“You know I’ve never given a damn about publicity,” Kyoutani snaps.

“Oh, edgy,” Shigeru mocks. Oikawa elbows him, still deep in conversation with Iwaizumi, and Shigeru tries his hardest not to wince. Kyoutani snorts anyway. (His laugh is cute, too; this is absolutely  _ ridiculous _ .)

By the time they’re set to go onstage, Shigeru’s decided that at least he likes Watari, who seems to be sweet and stuck with the worst bandmate ever. “He’s not that bad,” Watari says the several times Shigeru insults Kyoutani, and each time, Kyoutani smiles just a little bit. ( _ Cute, _ a small, unbidden voice whispers in Shigeru’s head, but he kicks it out like it’s a soccer ball and he’s twelve again.)

“Okay,” Oikawa says after they practice one last time, eyes and smile equally bright. “Let’s do our best, yeah?”

“And…” Kunimi prompts, swirling his hand. Oikawa’s grin glimmers like the teeth of a shark as his eyes narrow.

“And crush them, obviously,” he replies, and Hanamaki whoops.

The song they play isn’t even their best - it’s a new piece to grab attention from the tabloids, something hasty and vague about an imaginary girl - but when Shigeru allows himself to glance in Kyoutani’s direction, he looks almost awestruck, eyes wide and gaze focused on him. Watari whispers something to him, but he doesn’t seem to be listening. Shigeru tilts his mouth easy and wide like Oikawa - glances at the sky - continues playing.

“Yours was the best so far,” Iwaizumi says when they get offstage, and Oikawa beams. Kyoutani glances at Shigeru and shrugs.

“Yeah,” he agrees, pretending not to care, “but we’re still gonna be better.”

“I saw you staring,” Shigeru says, grinning. “You don’t have to play cool anymore.” Kyoutani goes red at the ears ( _ cute,  _ why is everything he does  _ cute _ ) and stomps backstage.

“You’re embarrassing when you flirt,” Kunimi says as they sit down. Shigeru splutters a  _ lot  _ before he manages to get a sentence out.

“I was just, uh.” He clears his throat. “Trying to throw him off his game.”

“I can’t believe I ever thought you were cool,” Kunimi replies, turning away before Shigeru can ask when he thought he was cool.

An  _ issue  _ arises as soon as Riot begins to play - Kyoutani’s sort of beautiful ( _ gross, _ Shigeru thinks, horrified,  _ that’s a gross cheesy word _ ). He’s playing the guitar unexpectedly softly, eyes focused on it instead of the audience, mouthing the words to their song as Iwaizumi sings at the mic. It’s a cute song, too, about coffeeshops and rain and unexpected romance. Shigeru wonders if Kyoutani wrote it.

Later, once he’s offstage and dripping sweat, Kyoutani tells him,“You were staring at me, too.” He has dimples. Shigeru blinks.

“Um,” he says. “Yeah.” Oikawa snickers.

“This has been a great show,” the host says with a toothy smile, “but unfortunately, only one band can win.” Shigeru had forgotten this was a competition somewhere in between their set and Riot’s. Oikawa remembers, though, listening and smiling his most gorgeous interview-charming smile, as if flirting with the host will change their results. She blushes and fumbles with the envelope for a moment before pulling out the card.

“Riot wins _ , _ ” she announces, “but only with one point more than the runner up, SJ51!” Iwaizumi whoops, pulling Kyoutani in for a rough hug, and Watari beams wide enough his face might split in half.

“Next time,” Oikawa chirps, not quite as false as after a normal loss.

Iwaizumi smiles at him from onstage. “Next time,” he agrees.

“You, uh,” Kyoutani says when they get back offstage, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. ( _ Cute, _ Shigeru thinks again, but the thought doesn’t feel as annoying as it has throughout the day.) “You were good.”

“So were you,” Shigeru replies with an easy grin, a little surprised that he means it. “But not good enough to beat me in a one-on-one.”

“You’re challenging me?” Kyoutani asks. He sounds cautious, as if he’s expecting Shigeru to take it back or make fun of him again.

Shigeru shrugs. “I mean,” he says, as casually as he can, “I’d need to get your number to arrange something - informal, obviously; I’m not wasting too much time on this.”

Kyoutani grins - dimpled and crooked and so, so pretty. “I’ll kick your ass.” He scrawls his number on a napkin with a marker, and Shigeru thinks that he might not mind losing if he gets to see Kyoutani smile like that again.

**Author's Note:**

> [ [twt](https://twitter.com/kyoustani) ]
> 
> hihiii this is the fic i wrote for the incredible [rule the court zine](https://twitter.com/seijohzine)!! it was an incredible experience and i had so much fun being part of this incredibly talented (!!!) team!!
> 
> thank you so much for reading and i hope you have an amazing day!! ♡


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